Germany’s Parliament has voted to reduce the possession of child pornography from a felony to a misdemeanor. The bill states “possession and acquisition should be punishable with a minimum penalty of three months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment. The offenses regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”
The bill’s proponents claim its purpose is to protect parents and teachers of children who download such material for the purpose of sharing it with law enforcement, but the need to decriminalize child porn possession was never needed since all that was needed was an amendment to the law that took such circumstances under consideration.
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Excerpt from www.louderwithcrowder.com
Germany’s Parliament (Bundestag) has received the votes necessary to remove a section of the Criminal Code which made the possession of child sexual abuse materials a felony crime. Once the bill, passed last Thursday, comes into effect, minimum sentences for the possession of child pornography will be reduced, and the offense will be downgraded to a misdemeanor.
According to the Bundestag, the bill stipulates that “possession and acquisition should be punishable with a minimum penalty of three months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment. The offenses regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”
The rationale behind the downgrading of the crime to a misdemeanor included consideration for parents and teachers of children who download the content in order to inform law enforcement. “Such cases have occurred particularly frequently among parents and teachers of older children or young people who found child pornography on them and passed it on to other parents, teachers or the school management to inform them of the problem,” reads Article 1 of the bill.
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